Assessment of the Tourism Carrying Capacity of Ecopaths In Protected Areas

Abstract

The article deals with organization of ecological tourism - one of the topical types of domestic tourism in modern Russia. Features of the organization of tourism in protected areas open to the public (national and natural parks) are considered. The role of ecological paths (ecopaths) as the main means of tourists’ exploration of protected areas is emphasized. A necessity of preliminary assessment of the Tourism Carrying Capacity (TCC) of ecopaths of protected areas is stated, since they experience a higher level of anthropogenic stress than the other territory. The absence of a conventional method for such an assessment, and a wide variety of author's methods, is noted. The methodological apparatus for assessing the TCC of ecopaths, proposed by the scientist M. Cifuentos (Costa Rica), is considered in detail. Despite the fact that this methodology was developed in a Latin America, its main postulates are based on taking into account the geographical and infrastructural features of protected areas that are typical for such objects worldwide, so it can also be used to assess Russia's ecopaths. The main stages of assessing the geographical, climatic and infrastructural characteristics of ecopaths, formulas and an example of calculation are presented. Conclusions are made about the need to use GIS for a wider study of the structure of the territory occupied by ecotrails.